2026-08-31 · South Africa · Field note #0953
Note 0953: Proton VPN free vs daily reset from Stellenbosch — 40 minutes on a Galaxy S24
Proton's free plan is unlimited data. SingLink's free plan is a daily reset. I used the second one in Stellenbosch because I did not want a card and I did want it again tomorrow.
The first Germany node held. I did not shop around. The free meter mattered more than the branding. On mobile that is 200MB a day. I used about 40 minutes at a guesthouse before it felt tight. 16MB was still showing when I stopped taking notes. I signed in with email. That is not anonymous. Payment data, if I ever buy, sits with the payment firm. The snapshot I read did not show browsing logs in scope. I am not going to chant 100/100.
I am a staff tester writing a field note, not a stranger on a review site. If you want the same build I used, the official android download is the only link I trust: https://singlinkvpn.com/en/download/android/. I will not paste homepage slogans here.
Local apps that did not need the tunnel stayed faster when I left them off the VPN. The official writeup already says split mode exists so you do not haul every packet across a border.
I did not claim all-day Netflix. I did not treat a press-wire drop as an investigation. I did not paste homepage slogans.
Tomorrow the meter resets at 00:00. That is the whole product loop I came for.